Robert Corn

Robert Fred Corn
Memorial services are scheduled at 2pm Saturday, January 7, 2012 at Ballard Chapel for Robert Fred Corn, 80, who passed away January 5, 2012 at Eastern New Mexico Medical Center, Roswell. Rev. Gorton Smith of First United Methodist Church will conduct services.

Robert was born in Roswell, New Mexico in 1931 to Fred B. and Beatrice Knight Corn who both preceded him in death. Also preceding him was brother in law, General Harry Cordes of USAF.

Robert is survived by his oldest sister Rogene Corn Cordes, of Isle of Palms, SC and children Gloria Cordes and Allen Larson of Yarmouth Port, MA, Jeanne Cordes of Costa Rica. He is also survived by his younger brother William B. Corn and his wife, Crystal Carmon Corn, and their children, Christa Corn, M.D. of Phoenix, AZ, and Cheryl L. Corn of Wilmington, DE. Surviving him also are his two sons Robert B. Corn and Nancy Brownfield Corn his wife, and Rodney D. Corn and his wife Karen Maynes Corn, and his granddaughter Tawny Elise Corn Garza, her husband Javier Garza and his four great grand children, all residing in Roswell.

Robert was a lifelong rancher and devoted father who lived life to the fullest. His greatest joy was to see new life born in the springtime on his family ranch northwest of Roswell, NM. Robert was a high time Private Pilot using single and multiengine fixed wing aircraft as a business tool in ranching and transportation. He enjoyed many hobbies hunting and fishing in the nearby wilderness of New Mexico and Texas, Canada, and Africa. He was an avid innovative boater, building his own flat bottom ski boat for family recreation.

Robert was the national committeeman for The American Sheep Producers Council and The National Wool Council and was the President of the New Mexico Wool Growers Association for many terms devoted to the marketing of wool textile industry worldwide. During this time of service, the football stadium in Roswell was designated the Wool Bowl, holding an annual junior college bowl football game. Later, Robert was Chairman of the 10th Miss Wool of American Pageant, the first to be nationally televised. The Pageant was a means to increase nationwide awareness of the wool fashion industry across the United States of America. He was also a production consultant for the Swift Company to improve the marking of lamb meat production in the world market.

In his younger years, Robert rode horse back on a daily basis roping livestock infested with screwworms to medically treat the family heard. Later in his life, he assisted in a better solution to the devastating screwworm problem in the wildlife and livestock industry. Robert F. Corn, Fred B. Corn, Abe Pina, Charles Fuller and many others worked on a multinational agreement for a method to introduce a sterile screwworm fly in North America to eradicate the screwworm. Funding for research and development was through the Agricultural Departments of Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, and United States Department of Agriculture, and the Government of Mexico. The method was used throughout the southern United States, Mexico, and through a point in southern Panama preventing the migration of the screwworm fly from South America into North America still effective today. Meanwhile, on the local scale, he was instrumental in the founding of the two way radio communication system, known as Ranchers Radio, Inc., serving most of the rural communication needs of ranchers of the southeastern plains of New Mexico and a cooperative electric fence designed to limit the migration of predators into the ranch lands west of the Pecos River.

Robert F. Corn will be remembered as a quiet man with a gentle soul and a giving heart. He will be forever respected for his innovations, which made a global and local contribution without regard as to who received the credit. Memorials can be made to the Cowboy Bell Scholarship Fund, First United Methodist Church, 200 N. Penn, Roswell or to a charity of your choice.

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